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Sunday, 8 December 2013

In a two-pronged
approach on China, India is ready for additional military confidence-building
measures (CBMs), but it is also set to announce the name of a
Lieutenant-General-rank officer who will be the first to head the newly-created
Mountain Strike Corps tasked to tackle threats originating from across the
Himalayas.

The appointment is
pending approval at the highest level in the government and is expected to be
announced anytime now. On CBMs, New Delhi is okay with having a telephonic
hotline between Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs) on either
side. The DGMOs will handle flash points at the local level along the Line of
Actual Control (LAC) that forms the boundary between the two countries.

As the People’s
Liberation Army (PLA) of China does not have an officer designated as the DGMO,
an equivalent in its military hierarchy would be identified, sources told The
Tribune.

“From our side, we are okay
with starting off with the DGMO-level hotline followed by a similar mechanism
between regional armies on either side,” a senior functionary confirmed.

The regional armies would mean
that the Udhampur-based Northern Command and the Kolkata-based Eastern Command
in India will be connected over hotline with China’s Military Area Commands
(MAC), Lanzhou and Chengdu, respectively.

The military confidence-building
measures are off-shoots of the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA)
signed on October 23 between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese
Premier Li Keqiang.

The issue of hotlines will be
come up during the fifth meeting of the ‘Working Mechanism for Consultation and
Coordination on India-China Border Affairs’. The last meeting was conducted at
Beijing on September 29-30. India will host the next round. India and Pakistan
DGMOs have a hotline.

On New Delhi’s own military
preparedness, sources said the name of the Lieutenant-General, the first to
head the Mountain Strike Corps, was finalised at the Army Commanders conference
in October.

His appointment is pending
with the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) and an announcement is now
inevitable. Once done, it will be the first step followed by force accretion
using trained troops from existing formations. The Cabinet Committee of
Security (CCS) had cleared the Corps on July 17 and allocated Rs 64,000 crore
over the next seven years.

The Corps will be based in
Panagarh, West Bengal. One of the divisions (each with some 15,000 troops) will
be stationed east of Chicken’s neck -- a name for the Siliguri corridor -- and
the other located west of it.

Some six-to-seven brigades --
5,000 troops in each -- will be littered across important ingress routes all
along the Himalayas. The focus will be on rapid deployment using the road
routes, sources said. It will have three artillery brigades, each with 90 guns.

An air-defence brigade
carrying truck-mounted missiles and an aviation brigade with helicopters for
attack, reconnaissance and heavy-lift support, besides planes for special
operations, is part of it. The Corps will be the first offensive capability to
launch a pincher attack on China as the three other existing Strike Corps based
at Ambala, Mathura and Bhopal face Pakistan.

Well-prepared

As an additional confidence-building
measure, New Delhi is okay with having a telephonic hotline between Director Generals
of Military Operations on either side

India is also set to announce the name of a
Lieutenant-General-rank officer who will be the first to head the newly-created
Mountain Strike Corps

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131208/nation.htm#7

India closely watching China’s air defence
Zone

Ashok Tuteja

Tribune News
Service

New Delhi,
December 7

Though it has
avoided making any adverse comment on China establishing an Air Defence
Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea, New Delhi is keeping a close
eye on the situation arising from the development.

China’s ADIZ
envisages that aircraft flying through the zone must follow its rules,
including filing flight plans. The ADIZ covers a set of islands-called Diaoyu
by China and Senkaku by Japan-whose sovereignty is hotly contested by the two
countries. The implementation of ADIZ is also likely to affect New Delhi-Tokyo
route.

But India, despite
being a key player in the India-Pacific strategic chess game, does not want to
be seen to be taking sides just yet. External Affairs Salman Khurshid said New
Delhi hoped the parties concerned would be able to find a peaceful solution to
the issue through talks. New Delhi is drawing some solace from Beijing’s recent
statement, ruling out establishing such a defence zone along the India-China
border.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's former army chief Gen
Ashfaq Pervez Kayani may have called it a day but still faces threats from
militants and hence was forced to abandon his retirement house, a media report
said on Friday.

Security threats
have forced Kayani to leave his newly built retirement home. He has opted to
live near a heavily guarded army house.

While he was still
in service, Kayani planned to spend his retired life in Islamabad's Defence
Housing Authority (DHA) where he constructed a house with a grey stone finish
at a scenic location in Phase 1.

Perched on a
corner plot, the house continues to stand apart in the housing colony. Its
terraced gardens slope down to the River Soan. The plot in front remains
vacant.

However, security
experts felt that the house was a security threat because it was impossible to
protect the rear end of the house (where the land sloped down to the river),
Dawn daily reported. Although, the house has close circuit television for
monitoring the security of the house but this was deemed insufficient.

Consequently,
Kayani, months before his retirement, started constructing a new house in the
heavily guarded and secure neighbourhood of the army house, the report said
quoting a retired army officer living in the same area.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131207/main6.htm

Vohra: Need to
form national security doctrine

Tribune News
Service

New Delhi,
December 6

Jammu and Kashmir
Governor NN Vohra today stressed the need for a national security doctrine to
ensure speedy production by defence public sector undertakings and cohesiveness
in operations of three Services.

Vohra, who was
Defence Secretary and Home Secretary during the PV Narismha Rao Government
(1991 to 1996), was delivering the National Security Lecture-2013 on
Civil-Military Relations: Opportunities and Challenges, organised by the United
Service Institution of India, here today. Former Army Chief General Shankar
Roychowdhury chaired the lecture.

Calling on all
three Services to shed reservations and establish meaningful cohesiveness,
Vohra said: "Any delay in the finalisation of the joint doctrine covering
all aspects of integrated operations would come in the way of the Armed Forces
preparing themselves for delivering an effective response when an emergency
arises".

A separate
national security doctrine, said Vohra, should form the basis of which
integrated threat assessments could be made. The Defence Ministry must ensure
that the ordinance factories, defence PSUs, DRDO establishments and others
deliver on time. "Prolonged delays cause serious difficulties for the
Armed Forces and large economic losses as the lack of certainty about supplies
from indigenous sources compels expensive imports", he said while citing
how during the 1999 Kargil conflict with Pakistan, India resorted to imports.

He also touched
upon the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), saying that the force is duty
bound to ensure people’s civil rights are protected, it is equally necessary
for the Centre and the affected states to collectively evolve an acceptable
approach which ensures that the personnel of the military formations are
provided the requisite legal protection.

Without naming
former Army Chief General VK Singh, Vohra said needless controversies had
marred the Army's glorious image.

NEW DELHI: India will not get a General No. 1,
a tri-service military chief, for the foreseeable future. The government has
made it clear there is no move to appoint either a chief of defence staff (CDS)
or a permanent chairman of the chiefs of staff committee (CoSC) soon.

Sources on Friday
said the government "will not take a hasty decision" in the matter.
"It needs serious discussions among various stakeholders. Such a decision
can be taken only after a careful study and gauging the mood of all political
parties," said a source.

This scotches all
speculation that General Bikram Singh would be appointed as the permanent CoSC
chairman once IAF chief Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne retires on December 31,
paving the way for present integrated defence staff chief Lt-Gen Anil Chait to
succeed him as the Army chief. This would derail the chances of Eastern Army
commander Lt-Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, who is slated as of now to replace Gen
Bikram Singh when he retires on July 31 in the normal course of things.

It also confirms
the TOI report on Wednesday that the CDS post will continue to remain in cold
storage, where it has been kept despite being strongly recommended by the GoM
report on `Reforming the national security system' in 2001 after the Kargil
conflict.

Moreover, the
government will also not appoint a permanent CoSC chairman, recommended by the
14-member Naresh Chandra Taskforce in its report submitted to PM Manmohan Singh
in May 2012, in the run-up to the general elections early next year.

The existing CoSC
comprises the Army, Navy and IAF chiefs, with the senior-most of them acting as
the "rotational" chairman till he retires. A permanent chairman, with
a fixed two-year tenure, would mean a fourth four-star general in the CoSC as
the "first among equals".

A post like CDS,
or even its watered-down version like a permanent CoSC chairman, is desperately
needed to provide "single-point military advise" to the government,
manage the nuclear arsenal and resolve inter-Service doctrinal, planning, procurement
and operational issues.

But the
politico-bureaucratic combine, both in the NDA and UPA regimes, has kept
meaningful defence reforms on the backburner. Some quarters have even gone as
far as to suggest — completely erroneously — that appointment of "an all-powerful
general" could invite the possibility of a military coup.

The defence
ministry has rejected all the crucial recommendations of Naresh Chandra
Taskforce, in its comments submitted to the National Security Council
Secretariat (NSCS) under the PMO, as first reported by TOI in June. After
collating comments from all the ministries concerned, the NSCS is supposed to
present a consolidated proposal to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) for
consideration.

As per the
taskforce, the permanent CoSC chairman would also be an invitee to the CCS and
NSC as well as head the proposed Special Forces Command. MoD, however, said
only "certain ministers" were currently invited for CCS and NSC
meetings. "There is no scope for the proposed CoSC chairman to be placed
in this category," it said.

The MoD has also
rejected the need for "cross-staffing", or the posting of military
officers to MoD to bridge the civil-military disconnect, holding that there
were institutional mechanisms in place to ensure "joint consultations"
as well as provide "integrated advise" to the defence minister.

The army has
raised objections to the alleged encroachment on a defence land in Jaipur and
issued a notice to civil authorities in Kota. The notice was served to Urban
Improvement Trust (UIT) by the local military authorities recently for
encroachment of defence land.

The army raised
objection to construction of an overbridge, which, it claims, is 39 meters
inside the defence land and alleged encroachment by two religious places,
Central government office, 11 houses and shops.

"A site
report prepared after a joint survey pointed out that the rail over bridge was
being constructed on Defence Land. Therefore, notice has been issued to them
for encroachment of Defence Land," Defence Spokesperson S D Goswami said.
He said that during the survey, it came to light that construction is 39 metres
inside defence land as per land settlement revenue maps.

Accordingly, in
recent past, the Army has issued notices to 14 encroachers to vacate from its
Defence land adjoining the over Bridge. The encroachers include a temple,
dargah, Central Government office and 11 houses or shops, he added.

Chairman UIT Kota,
Ravindra Tyagi, said that action will be taken after examining the notice.
"The overbridge has already been dedicated to public. There are several
encroachers on the defence land and we will take action after examining the
notice," he said.

A legal advice
sought from Central Government Standing Counsel (CGSC) has recommended notice
to UIT Kota under Public Premises Eviction (PPE) Act 1971.

A Milan court,
while recording Haschke's statement, gave Indian officials present there an
opportunity to question him.

Haschke said
Indian air force officials were paid a bribe worth 6 million euros, while the
bureaucracy was paid 8.4 million euros. He alleged some politicians were also
paid huge amount of bribe in the scam.

AgustaWestland had
been accused of bribery charges in the Rs. 4000-crore VVIP chopper deal with
Indian defence department.

The company had
denied all charges of paying kickbacks.

Besides bribing
Indian officials for a 12-helicopter deal, Finmeccanica discussed kickbacks for
a larger deal with a serving Brigadier in the Indian Army, an inquiry by
Italian prosecutors had said.

The report by the
investigators had said that an alleged middleman for helicopter manufacturer
AgustaWestland was seen touching the feet of former Air Force chief SP Tyagi.

The scandal
involved kickbacks worth upto Rs 360 crores for the deal that was worth about
Rs 4,000 crores and allegedly took place during the tenure of Tyagi who headed
the air force from 2004 to 2007.

Tyagi had denied
the allegations and had said that he met one of the alleged AgustaWestland
middlemen just once contrary to the charges of "six or seven"
meetings.

The middleman
Haschke "confessed" that he met Tyagi six or seven times and once
greeted him by touching his feet as a sign of respect, the Italian prosecutors
had said.

Tyagi's family
members were also linked to the scam but his brother vehemently denied it.